Sam Russell and the Harborrats release Born to Hurt single

Seattle-via-Kenosha, Wisconsin anachronistic troubadour Sam Russell just released a new single and it’s fantastic. The anthemic “Born to Hurt” feels like a defining statement for Russell, an artist with a body of work spans a live EP with his ace band, the Harborrats as well as his Blue Moon Bible project, an ongoing series of 8 albums with 8 songs apiece inspired by The Odyssey and James Joyce’s Ulysses (Russell is, thus far, 6 records in). All strains of folk, Americana, doo wop, rock ‘n’ roll, and post-Dylan folk-rock that Russell has employed over the last decade meet on board an ’80s synth-laden space ship and soar above the trees, past the old factory and over the train tracks to glory a la the movie The Explorers. Western civilization needs not one more iota of half-baked post-US presidential election commentary, but Russell’s literal (he left Kenosha over a decade ago) and figurative escapism is a sharp contrast from the fascist incantations many of his fellow Rust Belters cast in the voting booth on November 8th.